Unrest over RMG wage spills to Day 6
Readymade garment workers seeking a wage hike demonstrated on the streets and clashed with police for the sixth consecutive day, ignoring appeals to return to work. The workers are demanding a minimum wage of Tk 8,114, which factory owners are reluctant to concede. At least 50 people, including 20 policemen and journalists, were injured when workers clashed with police at Fatulla in Narayanganj on Thursday. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel had to be deployed in Gazipur to quell a particularly violent spell of unrest in which irate workers vandalised parts of the Savar industrial belt. The agitation continued to rage despite Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan’s appeal to the Wage Board to fix a new salary structure by November.
Narayanganj
Workers and police repeatedly clashed over four hours since 11am at Fatulla’s Katherpool on Thursday. Earlier, the workers had blocked the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road for three hours since 10:30am. Traffic on Fatulla’s Post Office-Hajiganj Road and the Dhaka-Narayanganj link came to a halt, causing commuters to greatly suffer. As many as 25 vehicles were reported to have been damaged during the trouble. Superintendent of Narayanganj district police Syed Nurul Islam told bdnews24.com 20 policemen, including the industrial police OC, were administered first aid for injuries. Bangla Dailly Ittefaq’s photojournalist Tapas Saha was also injured.
Workers’ mood was especially sullen on Thursday after an agitator was injured in police firing on Wednesday. Clashes erupted when police tried to disperse protestors from a street in Katherpool. The workers took shelter in nearby buildings, hurling stones at the policemen from their places of hiding. Police retaliated, firing rubber bullets and lobbing teargas shells, to control the situation. Tension eased once police retreated at around 1pm and the workers emerged from their hiding. Traffic was back to normal by afternoon. Garment workers also blocked the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road at Lamaparha and Noyamati with burning tyres and street demonstration.
Assistant SP of Adamji Industrial Police-4 Md Masud said, “The situation is kind of tensed up. The workers are not being allowed to join work after several factories were vandalised on Wednesday.” Additional police personnel had been deployed for greater security at the factories, he added.
Gazipur
The management of at least 20 factories in the district have declared closure to avert mayhem following Thursday’s unrest. Workers held demonstrations at a factory in Kaliakoir Upazila also. BGB troops were deployed earlier in the day to join a large contingent of police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to maintain peace in this area, worst-hit by workers’ agitation over the past five days. “Three platoons of the BGB have been patrolling Gazipur from early morning. The administration has also assigned two executive magistrates with them,” Gazipur Deputy Commissioner Md Nurul Islam told bdnews24.com.
Savar
Meanwhile, in the Ashulia industrial area, workers of several readymade garment factories demonstrated, broke several vehicles and blocked traffic for 30 minutes, pressing for the reopening of closed factories. Owners shut down several factories in Jirani and Jirabo after opening them briefly in the morning. The closures added fuel to the protest fire on Thursday. The workers tried to block the Dhaka-Tangail highway, too, but retreated in the face of stiff police action. Chakrabarty Police Outpost Sub-Inspector Md Saiful Islam said police dispersed a group of workers when they tried to block the Nabinagar-Kaliakoi road. Most garment factories in Gazipur, Narayanganj and Savar had resumed production on Thursday after five days of protest. But a section of RMG workers in those areas are persisting with their agitation.
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